U.S.

Covering Conn. Shootings: Let's Be Right, Not First

Stop. Listen. Think. I honestly believe there are no better words for today and for how we, as journalists, must approach the horrific elementary school shooting in Connecticut.

It’s what we did here in Mashable’s news room. We stopped, collected and decided on how we could tell this story in a way that might offer insight, maybe even comfort, to our readers.

As a parent, today’s event is heartrending. My kids are now teenagers, yet I want to hug them as if they are small children again. I’m angry, too. Violence does that to people. It comes from anger, and it makes people angry. I want to find who’s responsible. I demand justice.

The media — which is, to some extent, our proxy — does the same thing. They want answers for their readers. They also want to be the first to deliver news. Exclusives are currency. To learn and share the name of the monster who did this is, to put it bluntly, a “win” for the media outlet.

At least it can seem that way at the time.

What we do know is that people are dead, many of them children. It is unimaginable because I cannot bear to imagine what happened in that school. What the children saw.

It is easier, at these times, to focus on the external and join in the hunt for information about the perpetrators. We did that at Mashable. All of us heard CNN say the same “Ryan Lanza.” Dozens of hands instantly typed the name into Google, Facebook and Twitter. We all come up with the same few sites.

In a matter of moments, other media outlets dove into the breach and posted photos and links to a person who appears to have that name.

As I write this now, we have no idea if this guy is the same person, though it looks unlikely.

Mashable decided not to compound the issue by further publicizing a potentially innocent man. We chose not to link to his Facebook page or, as some did, run a photo of him.

Online, heartfelt Tweets, Facebook posts and even video chat streams rode alongside angry retorts about gun control and even religion. No time for mourning, let’s renew the debate!

Since we know nothing about the assailant beyond the tiny bits law enforcement has offered us, we can only guess what kind of weapon was used and if the gun(s) were registered or not — not that that has stopped social media or traditional media from guessing. Right now there’s an image of a gun going viral that may or may not represent the kind of weapon used.

Hours after the event, police had yet to release a shooter name, but the identification of a person who may or may not share the assailant’s name is spiraling out of control. The “wrong” Lanza’s page happens to list the “Mass Effect” video game as an interest. You can guess what happened next.

No one waits for the facts anymore, least of all online media. It is “find and run with it.” All apologies can come later. It’s just media, after all. Just digital words and images, easily changed with the stroke of a key. People will read the update or the updated post. So it’s all good, right?

Except it’s not.

What’s crystal clear is that, in these situations, whatever information is put out there will instantly grow legs and run off on its own. Whoever reports the misinformation has absolutely no control over what happens next. They can’t run around the neighborhood and grab the newspapers off newsstands, though they often act as if they could.

I know in my reporting career I have made mistakes. I’m sure I’ll make others in the future, but I think it’s time for us to realize that the rush to judgment and misinformation is far more damaging than it was ten or twenty years ago.

A "shot heard 'round the world" is no longer an exaggeration and that trip will take seconds, not days, weeks or months. It’s time to stop, listen, and think.

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